Catalina Sky Survey

The Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) is a survey of near-Earth objects, i.e., comets and asteroids whose orbits pass close to that of the Earth. It was begun in 1998 and continues. Its initial goal has been to identify 90% of objects 1 kilometer or larger. Two telescopes are used: 1.5 meter telescope on Mt. Lemon and a 68 cm telescope near Mt. Bigelow, both near Tucson, Arizona. The same data is used for the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS), which scans the collected images for transients. The CSS is the outgrowth of the Bigelow Sky Survey (BSS), which used photography.